Rwanda
Politics | Human rights
Genocide suspects plead not guilty

afrol News, 21 August - Rwandan army officers have pleaded not guilty to murder of 13 senior Catholic clergy in the 100 days of slaughter during 1994 genocide at a military tribunal in Kigali on Wednesday.

During their first appearance in June this year, two officers, a general and major pleaded guilty to the killings. But lawyer for other two officers who are also accused of complicity in the killings have denied charges.

"Our position is that the responsibility for the order for which our clients are being prosecuted has not been established," said lawyer Me Rutabingwa.

All four defendants were arrested in June after chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) said Tutsi rebels led by Paul Kagame had murdered 13 clergymen on June 5 1994.

"There is no proof at all that they knew that their men were going to shoot these clergymen," the lawyer added.

Mr Kagame, now Rwanda's president, led Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that fought to end the genocide in 1994 and has been in power since.

Last month, Rwanda's lawmakers alleviated constitutional ambiguity and approved a new law that exempted former Presidents from being prosecuted. The new law also categorised the 1994 genocide as a "genocide committed on Tutsis."

The laws came into existence as French judiciary indicted President Kagame of setting the flames of the genocide killings after he had ordered attack on the plane of the former President Juvenal Habyarimana.

Mr Kagame denied charges, arguing former leader was assassinated by Hutu extremists.

The victims, including an archbishop and several bishops, were nearly all from the Hutu majority that perpetrated the genocide against minority Tutsis.

The Tanzania-based ICTR is investigating and bringing to justice suspects involved in the Rwanda genocide.

In February, relations between Spain and Rwanda were strained after a Spanish judge, Fernando Andreu, issued an arrest warrant against President Kagame and 40 military officers, accusing them of committing genocide, terrorism and crimes against humanity.

Mr Kagame, whose movement was hailed for squashing the genocide, blamed the Spanish judge of being arrogant.

By staff writer

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